LA GRANDE — When Logan Nedrow looks around her third-grade classroom at North Powder Charter School, she’s reminded of her upbringing.

From the ages of 6 to 18, Nedrow was a student at North Powder in Union County. Her mom taught while Nedrow learned, progressing through grades K-12. “I was here for all the late nights and early mornings,” she said.

Now she has her master’s in teaching and is back in the same classroom where she sat as a student — this time, she’s writing on the whiteboard. She began at North Powder four years ago, when the school had a desperate need for paraprofessionals, that is, support staff who provide hands-on help in the classroom.

Nedrow remembers the call from the school, “We really just need help for a couple of weeks,” they said. When she realized she had a real chance to leave a lasting impact on the students in rural schools who needed it most, those couple of weeks turned into a couple of years.

“There is always a student who has to go home to a really hard home life,” she said. “This is the place where they feel the most comfortable — where they feel love and support.”

Teachers such as Nedrow want to support students, but there are fewer each year who can financially justify teaching at a rural school.

Threat of online teaching

North Powder Charter School is nestled in a rural town 20 minutes from La Grande. The school draws in close to 300 students in grades K-12 from the surrounding areas, but the population of North Powder is just more than 400.

In Northeastern Oregon, which the state of Oregon designated as primarily rural, schools are facing a retention crisis. Nedrow has seen firsthand how educators leave for opportunities where more resources are available.

According to the “2016 Better Oregon Rural Education Report,” rural schools also face challenges in attracting and retaining teachers. The issue stems from the limited availability of resources in rural areas, as well as low pay rates.

“If you have a business background, a mathematical background, a computer science background, an engineering background — there are so many other areas where you can make a lot of money,” said Dave Dallas, a senior instructor in the College of Education at Eastern Oregon University.

Online schooling has posed a threat to rural schools. That’s because online schools can offer educators higher rates for their work through the computer screen.

“One of the teachers leaving here is getting a $20,000 pay increase,” Nedrow said. “How do you say no to that when you have that option?”

If Nedrow were to switch to an online school, her annual pay would increase by $25,000.

Boosts for rural teachers

Two programs for teachers in rural areas are working to bridge that gap in funding and support.

The Teach Rural Oregon initiative and the Rural Schools Collaborative create support systems for educators in remote communities and offer financial incentives to keep teaching in rural areas.

Oregon Rural Teaching Corps, a branch of EOU’s Teach Rural Oregon program, provides scholarships and grant funding to educators committed to rural teaching.

Killian Sump taught fifth through seventh grades at Burnt River School in Unity, last year. Across those grades, he had just six students. He graduated from the Teach Rural Oregon program at EOU in 2024.

“(My scholarship) was probably about a third of my total tuition at school, so it was incredibly relieving to get that,” Sump said. He was awarded $10,000.

When Nedrow graduated from EOU’s master’s of education program, she received funding through the Oregon Rural Teaching Corps to cover her classroom supplies. Flexible seating options in the classroom, whiteboard packet sheets and classroom decor help the classroom feel like home, thanks to the stipend.

Beyond financial support, the initiatives focus on two key areas: creating systems of support for rural educators and providing grant-writing education to help teachers secure additional resources for their schools.

Community matters

The community aspect of these programs has proven vital.

“Sometimes it can feel like you’re the only one teaching certain grade levels in your community,” Sump said. “Having those wider groups where you can collaborate and express what you’re going through with other educators that are doing something similar to you, maybe even just a couple towns away, is really helpful.”

As a council member on the Rural Schools Collaborative, Nedrow has learned grant-writing skills she plans to share with other education students at EOU to support their classrooms.

“Little rural North Powder isn’t the only place facing problems with school funding or resources,” Nedrow said. “I probably would have never applied for a grant if I hadn’t been a part of the Rural Schools Collaborative and had practice.”

The Rural Schools Collaborative has been able to administer more than $1 million to rural educators nationwide through direct funding and matching grants, according to its 2024 impact report.

The Teach Rural Oregon program has grown to nearly three times its original size since its inception in 2022, with an increasing number of education students participating in the program each year.

According to Dallas, who oversees the Teach Rural Oregon program, nearly a third of all master’s in education students at EOU during the last academic year taught in rural schools. “For those teachers, it can be isolating, so we want to be sure they have access to resources,” he said.

35 rural teachers could benefit

Support through school, financial and interpersonal, makes it possible for educators to stay in rural areas.

Programs such as Teach Rural Oregon demonstrate that addressing the practical needs of compensation and fostering meaningful connections are essential. These initiatives create a template for how rural districts nationwide might stem the tide of teacher departures.

Teach Rural Oregon has been made possible through an initiative called Grow Your Own, a series of grants that had their funding cut by the Oregon legislature at the end of the session in June, Dallas said.

Replacement funding is available from the Educator Advancement Council, which oversees the Grow Your Own program. The EAC received $14 million from the legislature to support Grow Your Owns through the 2027 fiscal year.

“Essentially all the monies that are received will go towards the Oregon Rural Teacher Corps,” Dallas said. “Currently, we have the potential for 35 rural teachers to benefit financially from this funding.”

He said he hopes to know by mid-September how much funding will be available for Teach Rural Oregon. Despite financial cuts, Dallas noted that the program isn’t going anywhere fast.

The Oregon Rural Teaching Corps, which provides scholarships to rural educators, will also be able to continue through a private grant from the Roundhouse Foundation, according to Dallas.

“I will continue in my role, not only as director of Teach Rural Oregon, but as teaching faculty instructor in the College of Education at Eastern Oregon University,” Dallas said.

The future of rural education depends not only on the funding available but also on teachers like Nedrow and Sump, who care about student success and well-being.

“Ultimately, the reason I went into education is to make an impact and change a person’s life, even if it’s just one,” Nedrow says. “This place is my home.”

— The Catalyst Journalism Project is a teaching, research and service initiative at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication that brings together investigative reporting and solutions journalism to spark action and response to the complex issues facing our communities. Click here to learn more about the project.

Oregon counties by rurality in 2024. (Oregon by the Numbers Report from the Ford Family Foundation)